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I have a very healthy looking growth of posion ivy which is starting to vine around my shed. There is wood nearby, some junk, some not. Inside there is wood I plan to use. I need to get rid of the ivy before it invades whats inside.

I've been told to spray diesel and motor oil on it but don't have a lot of confidence in that. I'd like to get rid of it entirely but plan to clear the area around the shed so anything that grows out can be eliminated. But I do not like to use herbacides other than very very sparingly. My 14 year old dog is allergic to weed killer and I do not want her to get sick.

After clearing out the wood, should it be gotten rid of like the vine growing around it? I've been told to watch the oils--not burn or mulch it. If I clip the ivy should I use gloves I toss afterwards?

I will spray sparengly but don't want to have to do it often. Which is less toxic, something that kills the ivy roots and all or something that kills the leaves and requires future spraying?

As for roundup, we had a wall of very old English ivy where I used to live, on the neighbors property. He liked it... alas. We cut it back and the next week you couldn't even tell. We gave it a good coat of Roundup and the leaves died on the first layer. Nothing more. Unless the poison kind is less hearty no need to bother with that.

Round Up is a wonderful product but it is for broad leaf weeds and is not a herbicide designed for woody plants like poison ivy. Your neighbor is right though in that diesel fuel/gasoline will kill it. A lot of people are not comfortable with that though, so you can go to Tractor Supply and get some better weed killer. I cannot remember the numbers in my very early morning stupor now, but a product known as 10-4-2 or something like that should kill poison ivy.

Incidentally I had a lot of poison ivy at my house...acres worth...but I wiped it out organically in a days time. My method...my sheep. Sheep LOVE poison ivy and is their favorite feed. Within hours of fencing in an area, the poison ivy is grazed down to oblivion. Maybe someone has sheep near you???

I use 41% glyphosate. It's generic Roundup pro, not regular Roundup (I think regular Roundup is only 1% glyphosate, BIG difference). I've been told if you mix it at 8 oz/gal it is very effective. It wiped out all of my poison ivy. Should run ya close to $40/gallon. (many, many years worth.)

Hydrogen-peroxide makes for a good organic weed killer too by the way.

But there are many ways to "kill" a weed like poison ivy. For instance poison ivy likes partial shade/partial sun, or filtered light as I call it. If you can do so, simply removing the over-story (cutting the shade trees) will kill it because it is getting too much light now. Of course you could also shade the area, but that tends to be hard to do and counter productive to any kind of outside living.

But another way to attack the problem is to "know your enemy". I have said this on here before. Simply find out what the plant thrives in for soil, its PH levels and what it has for trace minerals. There is a combination that is making it thrive. It likes acidic soil, so simply applying lots of lime will up the PH level to where other plants (grass, legumes, etc) flourish while the poison ivy is stressed. I am not sure what it likes for trace minerals, but poison ivy thrives because there is a combination that is just perfect for that plant. Throw off that perfect combination to one that favors grass or whatever, and the problem is solved...long term and not so herbicide dependent.

(Spoken as a farmer who surprisingly is NOT organic. Herbicides have their place, but repeated use is expensive and so I must rely on more inexpensive and more effective methods of herbicide control. What I am describing is just "tools" that you can use to help battle an issue. Sheep do work incredibly well though on poison ivy.)

BT - that is exactly the thought I had; changing the Ph levels of the soil.
(I'm thinking of trying it on the leafy spurge this year.)
But the hydrogen peroxide is something I hadn't heard of! Thanks!
I hesitate to use diesel or motor oil anywhere I plan to plant things later; by living with a mechanic I know that it kills everything - but unfortunately is VERY residual in the soil, and hard to fix if it soaks in.

BT - that is exactly the thought I had; changing the Ph levels of the soil.
(I'm thinking of trying it on the leafy spurge this year.)
But the hydrogen peroxide is something I hadn't heard of! Thanks!
I hesitate to use diesel or motor oil anywhere I plan to plant things later; by living with a mechanic I know that it kills everything - but unfortunately is VERY residual in the soil, and hard to fix if it soaks in.

I get rid of aphids with some soapy water. Works well. No pesticide.

It looks like there is some virginia creeper growing with it so while it isn't poisionous I want it gone too, I don't want my shed to be a green jungle.

There are some beautiful wild flowers that grow in the shaded area too, so if I tried motor oil I'd do it carefully. But wouldn't mind the adjacent area to be a dead zone if it kept the creepers away.

When the shed is emptied and dies, I want a nice storage building to replace it. No vinelife welcome then either.

Personally I consider ivy in all forms the enemy. I remember helping scrape it off the front of the house with my dad when I was a kid. And we were lucky, it wasn't the kind that dug its way in to the beams.

From what I read the oils would have made any wood on the outside where its growing unusable. Hmm, anyone got a sheep I could borrow? The yard needs mowing too.

Have used the Brush B Gone (ortho) on my back area -- we have an "upper" and "lower" back yard - and the lower (bright sunlight, morning and afternoon) yard was inundated with poison ivy this year.

As we are not familiar with it (sorry - not a big occurence in the suburbs of Detroit where I'm from) - we didn't know we had it until my husband had a run in with it.

We chose the brush-b-gone because as it is a runner plant, I was afraid if we simply cut it down the roots would continue sending out new shoots. Hopefully, the brush-b-gone is doing its job and killing it roots and all. Eventually we will mow the area (the plant needs to be big enough to be in full leaf for the herbicide to work) and if we ever dig back there again we will be certain to glove up - as the oils stay in the plant a long time after it is dead.

If you have need to be careful with an herbicide, and some spare time, put it on using a paint brush. For animals, fence the area temporarily, or at least until the herbicide dries.

Wear gloves and long sleeves. I know this sounds obvious, but I have learned from watching neighbors that it is not.

I use Brush Killer on woody plants and have exceptional luck with it, even removing unwanted lilacs that refused to die.

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